The Internship
by petals-to-fish
Summary: Lily Evans hadn't assumed that she'd be two months into her internship and still be acting as a personal servant to the editor of the newspaper while simultaneously shagging the intern of the art director downstairs. Life was funny in that way.


**Written for the lovely levins18 who requested Jily interning together. Hope this lives up to your expectations sunshine! Happy Jily October! xxx (warning: my sailor's mouth comes out in this piece) xxx**

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When she'd taken the internship at _The Daily Prophet_ Lily had assumed she'd be hitting all the hard-breaking news stories with quill and paper in hand. She had assumed she'd shadow one of the amazing reporters and maybe hit coffee shops after work with her new friends. She hadn't assumed that she'd be two months in and still be acting as a personal servant to the editor of the newspaper while simultaneously shagging the intern of the art director downstairs.

Life was funny in that way.

Lily Evans flipped her red hair over her left shoulder as she struggled with the notepad in her hand, flipping through the pages in a hurry. A dark brown stain had soaked the pages and Lily assessed the damage. Some of the damp pages were falling apart and Lily moaned to herself, dreading entering Craig Knox's office with lack of material for his piece on the riots at the Ministry of Magic. Lily's feet dragged her body slowly towards the door at the end of the hall.

It was bad enough that last night she'd accidently (or totally purposefully) found herself in the bedroom with her fellow intern and schoolmate…after she'd taken the walk of shame at four in the morning in order to get home and grab her forgotten work things Lily's sister Petunia caught her in the kitchen in a shirt that was clearly not hers and a skirt that was clearly not work approved. In Lily's defense, when she'd agreed to meet James for a quick dinner near the Thames she certainly hadn't thought she'd end up throwing all her previous qualms surrounding their friendship out the window and shagging him.

He was a really convincing bloke, that James Potter.

Their dinner had been nice and it almost felt like they were really going places with their relationship other than snogging in stairwells and sending each other shameless looks in the hallways at school. Of course, at school they'd never even considered doing anything like snogging in the depths of a newspaper factory—it wasn't until the added benefit of working together, seeing each other dressed up in agreeable clothes, and compact stairwells that they even considered each other romantically at all.

Stolen kisses in James' photo developing room or the stairwell that led to each respective floor quickly turned into all out snogs. They'd spent six years in the same school and Lily was feeling a little damned that she hadn't discovered how great of a kisser James Potter was until they were involved in a friends-with-benefits type of affiliation.

Lily bit her lip outside of her boss's door and could voices inside. Hopefully Mr. Knox wouldn't yell at her in front of whoever was in there for letting her sister spill coffee all over her notes. Not that Lily had _let_ Petunia do anything of the sort—Lily was still sure Petunia did it on purpose.

Craig Knox, the Editor, had sent Lily to the Ministry the day before to get notes and quotes from passerby on the Dark Wizard attacks in London. It was the first time since starting that Lily's boss had trusted her with anything to do with the Daily Prophet, normally Lily was simply charged with cleaning up and fetching coffee. Lily was convinced that as soon as Knox saw her ruined notebook she'd be assigned to office cleaning for the rest of the summer internship.

Lily could imagine going back to Hogwarts in the fall and her best friend Mary going, _"So how was the Prophet?"_

And Lily imagined her answer with an added sigh; _"I was basically a house elf half the summer and snogged James Potter a lot."_

Lily closed her eyes and prayed to all the higher powers she knew of before opening the solid oak door at the end of the hall.

"Mr. Knox I—Oh." Lily was taken aback when she saw messy black hair and thick-framed spectacles.

The man with the goatee was indeed her boss, dressed in a pinstripe suit and wearing a frown the moment Lily entered. Mr. Knox's short frame couldn't however, hide the long willowy form of James Potter. James did a double take when she entered, looking enamored at the sight of her standing there.

"Lily." James' voice was just as warm as it had been that night, "What a pleasant surprise."

"James." She stood up taller, aware his hazel eyes were tracing every move she made.

"Just a moment Miss Evans." Mr. Knox raised a pale hand in her direction, "Mr. Potter is showing me the sketches and prints for tomorrows paper."

Lily bowed her head and smiled at the floor when she saw a recognizable flicker in James' hazel eyes. He'd been looking at her like that just hours before as he placed kiss after kiss all over her exposed body. Lily tucked her hair behind her ear, trying not to think about last night while inside of her boss's office.

James Potter was in her house in school, an avid dorm rat with a taste for trouble. In his mind, Lily knew she was exactly the kind of trouble he was looking for no matter the time or day. When she let her green eyes lift again he was still watching her, not giving a damn about Knox talking to him.

A grin lifted his features, showing off his dimples, and Lily's knees quivered. She felt unsteady in her shoes as Knox signed the papers James had brought him. She felt her heart beat a mile a minute when James' shoulder brushed against hers as he made his way out of the office. Her ears rang with the sound of his breathy voice saying goodbye to her. She held onto her notebook like it was a life raft and she was drowning in all things James Potter.

It as the third time this week she'd run into him. As if avoiding his suggestive glances and yearning stares weren't hard enough in school, having James Potter interning for the same newspaper printing company was driving her hormones up the wall. Lily was immensely charmed to him and after last night—it was a wonder that she was even able to make it to work in the morning.

"What do you have for me, Evans?" Mr. Knox's voice made Lily's head drop from the clouds and she straightened her skirt before clearing her throat and speaking.

"Mr. Knox I'm afraid my notes from the riots yesterday…well they were ruined this morning by a coffee cup." Lily held out the coffee stained notebook for proof and saw wrinkles appear in Knox's forehead.

"Are you inept, Miss Evans?"

His tone was so cool it made her take a step backwards and mutter, "Excuse me?"

"I was assured by Horace Slughorn that you were the brightest witch of your age." Knox's black eyes were sharp, "And yet here you have spilled coffee all over tomorrows news."

Tear pricked her eyes and anger welled up in her belly, "I—"

"You have three hours to get me decent material for the paper." When she opened her mouth to argue he put a hand up and threw her notebook back at her, "Three hours Miss Evans."

When she exited the office James was standing there waiting for her as she closed the door. In seconds (and she didn't really protest) his hands were pulling her face into his. His kiss this morning was softer than the lust filled kisses from last night. She kissed him back, if only to make herself slightly better off disposition wise. James _was_ a good kisser after all—the boy wasn't all looks and cheeky statements.

James' smile was bright enough to shine through her stony demeanor when he pulled away from his affectionate morning peck. Instead of smiling back at him she sent him an annoyed look that made his own face falter.

"I know that look." He said delicately, "What happened?"

"Apparently I'm inept because my sister spilled coffee all over my notes this morning." Lily said distantly, "And now I have three hours to get him enough information in the recent London attacks for tomorrows paper."

James looked apathetic, "That's plenty of time."

Lily rolled her eyes; it was just like James to not take a deadline seriously, "It took me all day yesterday to even get a quote from the Ministry."

James followed her as she trudged back down the hall, "Why all day?" he probed, "Your ID should get you into all the press conferences."

Lily shot James a look, "Knox told me I don't need an ID."

James gawked at her, "Well then how the hell does Knox think you'll get a new report in three hours?"

"Magic?" she questioned whimsically and ironically.

"Well that's shitty for him to expect you to do reporter work without reporter privileges."

Lily stopped walking and stared up at him, overwhelmed as she realized how much he really towered over her when she didn't wear heels. Lily took a deep breath and James smiled softly, reaching out to brush his fingers against her cheek.

He froze in mid-motion, her green eyes tracing his face with confusion at his intimate gesture. He let his fingers drop quickly, as if knowing he'd overstepped since they hadn't even discussed what _exactly_ they were doing. Lily cringed just thinking of their goodbye after their night together. It was so awkward and so forcibly platonic when Lily wanted more from their kisses and conversations. Fickle minded as she was, she knew she fucked up by not telling James how she felt the moment she felt it. If she had just told him the truth they wouldn't be playing the friends with benefits fiddle—always moments apart from strings breaking.

"You should ask to transfer to my department." He offered, leaning against the wall carelessly with one foot propped against the wall, "It's fun and super chill, plus I'd be with you." He sent her a meaningful look.

Lily leaned on the wall next to James and sighed deeply, "No, I can't ask for a transfer. It'd look bad."

"I guess." James seemed disgruntled that she didn't immediately jump at the chance of being with him a floor down in photography.

Lily fiddled with her coffee stained notebook before looking up at James. He was staring down at his shoes, the muscle in his jaw popping considerably. It meant he was clenching his teeth, a look she had only recently just memorized. Lily opened her mouth, about to tell James they should probably talk about their night spent together—when he interrupted her thoughts.

"I'll help you get the new report." He said, reaching up to ruffle his hair nervously and looking at her like she was the light of his life.

Lily stared at him, "You will?" he nodded and she digressed, "I'm sure you've got a lot to do James, you don't have to—"

"I want too."

Lily couldn't doubt the gravity in his expression. His glasses were lopsided on his face and she had to resist the twitch in her hand, the reflex she'd gained to push his glasses back to normal.

"Okay." She said with slight uncertainty, "Do you happen to know how to get me into the press conferences today?"

James smirked and looked cocky as he tilted his head down at her, "Evans," he said sincerely, "I can do one better."

His declaration of her last name, the assured way that he spoke it, made her lips lift a little bit. James tucked his hand under her chin and winked, sending her heart into palpitations.

"There's the smile." He whispered, hazel eyes searching her face for something she couldn't read.

"James—"

But her words were falling to deaf ears because he grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the stairwell, likely to drag her to the photography floor. It reminded her of a similar outing only one week before when he'd surprised her when she was making rounds to gather articles from the writers…and they'd ended their day wrapped up in each other's arms in the darkened photography developing studio. James' mind seemed to be wandering in the same direction because his grip on her hand tightened as they made it to the stairwell.

He paused when they reached a landing and asked her nonchalantly, "Does coffee all over your notes this morning have anything to do with what happened last night?"

Lily made a face and he laughed, eyes twinkling, "I'll take that as a yes."

Lily stared up at him, not liking that he found her troubles on his behalf amusing, "It's not funny. My sister dropped her coffee when she saw me walk into the kitchen for my things this morning."

His eyebrow arched and all of a sudden he was really close, "Why?"

Lily's face was burning because the bastard knew _exactly_ whose shirt she was wearing when her sister spotted her, "because of the shirt I was wearing."

A wicked smile was stuck on his stupid face, "And what shirt were you wearing?"

Lily hit him on his chest but it backfire when James pressed his own hand against hers, keeping her palm flat against his chest as he leaned in with half closed eyes.

"Or should I say whose shirt?" he offered before pressing his lips roughly against hers in the bloody stairwell like they were hormonal teenagers—which, well, they were.

As Lily wrapped her hands into the soft fabric of his cotton button down she smiled happily against his lips, relishing in the adoring way he moaned into her mouth.

If anyone had told Lily that she'd be pulled up against James Potter's fit body for the second time in twenty-four hours she'd have laughed in their face but fate was a fickle thing. So much for telling Petunia it was a one-time thing—Lily had learned far too quickly that once James Potter was in your head he was hard to get out.

Pathetically it was James who pulled away first, resting his forehead against hers.

"How did we end up here again?" he murmured, his hands rubbing up and down her back amorously.

Her reply was unconvincingly trifling, "You obviously can't keep your hands off me."

"There's the pot calling the kettle black." He quipped, letting go of her and smiling triumphantly when her face developed a frown at the loss of his body pressed against hers.

Lily put her hands on her hips, " _You_ were the one who cornered me in the photo room at the start of this internship."

James shook his finger at her, albeit playfully, "And you were the one making doe eyes at me every time I passed you in the hallways at school." He took a dangerous step forward, "Besides, you definitely weren't complaining last night."

"Irrelevant." Lily went red again, glancing down at her watch on her wrist, "I've only got two and a half hours now, " James looked like he wouldn't mind wasting the rest of the time in their hidden stairwell, "how are you going to help me keep this internship?"

James mischievously inquired, "How do you feel about invisibility cloaks?"

Forty-five minutes later James was breathing directly into her ear as they stood in the back corner of the Ministry of Magic pressroom. At the front of the room was a giant wooden podium that a woman wearing pink robes was calling for order from. The other witches and wizard were meandering about the room with their pens and cameras. As interns they didn't have access to the main pressroom so James and Lily had sunk in under James' invisibility cloak behind a wizard brandishing a peacock quill like a wand as he spoke to a smaller dumpy witch with grey dreadlocks.

"You smell like cinnamon." He whispered to her.

Lily elbowed him in the ribs and he grumbled, placing his face in the dip between her neck and shoulder. Smiling triumphantly she looked up at the podium, prepared to get a word for word statement on the attacks. She'd never tell James (lest his head get two sizes too big) but she could've only dreamed about getting into the actual pressroom. Yesterday she'd waited outside the room and gotten secondhand quotes from the other reporters.

"Thank you all for coming," the woman in pink broadcasted from the podium, "as you are aware there were more attacks on Southwest London last night—"

"What?" James hissed in her ear, sounding irritated, "More attacks?"

Lily shushed him, busy writing everything down on her coffee stained notebook.

"Our Aurors covering the Southwest side assured me that as of this time," the woman in pink said delicately, "There are no recorded deaths."

"Bullshit." James faintly said, lips brushing against her ear and distracting her from the press meeting.

"James," Lily begged movingly, " _Please_ be quiet, someone will hear us."

"That old Hag is lying!" James overlooked Lily's pleas, "An attack on the Southwest side of London where a lot of muggle families live in close proximity to Richmond Park?"

As if the balding wizard in front of them heard James complaining, he raised his hand and enquired, "What about the small wizarding community off Richmond Park?"

"If there were any fatalities, there was none of our kind." The woman said severely, making Lily's transcribing pause in mid quill stroke.

Lily looked up, the cool fabric of James' invisibility cloak brushing against her face. The woman had a fierce expression, as if daring anyone in the room to challenge her authority. Without pausing to think, not even exhale, Lily tore James' cloak off of her and stepped through the crowd of reporters, holding up her hand. James didn't even have time to grab her around the waist and pull her back as Lily was sure he might've done. The lady in pink turned her harsh eyes upon Lily, standing in the crowd of reporters and standing out with her vivid red hair and coffee stained notebook.

"I wasn't aware we were letting children into the press rooms now." The woman sneered rudely.

Lily looked behind her and saw James had ripped his invisibility cloak off, he was watching her with a look she couldn't place. Instead of shaking his head at Lily to stop her, he seemed to only encourage her by leaning against the wall and smiling proudly at her. Lily turned back to the woman and took a deep breath.

"When you say there were no casualties 'to our kind' what specific _kind_ of person are you talking about?"

The woman's eyes bugged out like a frog, "What's your name girl?"

"Lily Evans." Lily said daringly, "I'm here on behalf of _The Daily Prophet_. I just wanted to specify what _exactly_ you meant with your aforementioned statement?"

"What isn't clear about no witches or wizards were harmed in the attacks, Miss Evans." Lily's last name was laced with poison.

Lily blinked coolly, aware of all the eyes on her, "Are you insinuating that we should only be caring about the witches and wizards harmed in these attacks? What about the hundreds of muggle families murdered in their homes and on the streets?"

"This is the Ministry of _Magic_ ," the woman said vigorously, "not the Ministry of Muggles."

A few wizards around Lily chuckled into their pens and parchment. Lily felt tears flick her eyes and but squeezed her eyes shut and opened them with a new burst of vigor.

"The Ministry should be focusing on protecting everyone from the threat of Dark Wizards," Lily said fervently, " _Especially_ those without a means to fight back."

"We do not concern ourselves with the muggles, we never have." The woman stared down at Lily errantly, "they are unfortunate hazards in the war. Besides, who do you propose we use to protect the weak muggles caught in a war they can't even see?"

"Aurors, Magic Misuse Administrators…" Lily ticked off people who could help with her fingers.

"We are stretching the staff in the Misuse of Magic Department as is…" The woman dismissed Lily by turning almost fully away from her, speaking to an assistant on the side.

"Come on Lily." James' lips were back on her ear, she turned on her heel and saw that he was glaring up at the woman with every bit of dislike, "You got a report due for Knox in a half hour; let's get out of here."

"Can you believe her nerve?" Lily hissed as James practically dragged her out of the room.

"Wait to complain until we're out of here." James muttered, "Or we might get thrown out."

"Good." Lily said angrily.

James couldn't help but smile as they pushed to the door at the back of the room as the woman at the podium began talking about budget deficits, "As much as I was turned on by your little debate, I don't think you want to get thrown out if you're still trying to keep your internship."

Lily sighed dramatically but allowed James to pull her out of the Ministry and she didn't start complaining again until they'd gotten on the bus back to the small building The Daily Prophet operated out of. James just listened to her list off the ways the ministry could protect muggle families, especially those with wizarding neighbors. That's what she liked best about James, in fact, his ability to just sit back and listen. He would nod fervently if he agreed, kiss her forehead when she got emotional, and give her an encouraging smile as she made dreams and plans to change the world.

It was James who suggested she use the fifteen spare minutes to write her own opinion piece for Knox to (hopefully) place in the next edition of The Daily Prophet. As she wrote up the article, James sat at her side, doodling her initials on the edge of a spare piece of parchment. She couldn't resist brushing her hands through his messy hair once when he placed a kiss on her cheek as she stood up.

"Ready?" he asked with a grin.

"Ready." She smiled, allowing him to grab her hand.

Knox stared down at the piece she'd written up in James' office for a long time. Instead of the praise she expected though Knox finally threw the paper on his desk and stared at her in complete aversion.

"What the Hell is this, Evans?" he asked gruffly.

"I got you the report you asked for." Lily said crossly, staring at her masterpiece in the trash.

"You wrote an article condemning the Ministry of Magic's handling of the recent attacks on London." Knox stated slowly, "You think I can print that shit in my newspaper that the Ministry personally endorses?

"It's _your_ newspaper you should be able to print anything you like." Lily answered bravely.

"Go back to Hogwarts, kid." Knox snarled, tossing her write up in the bin, "This is not a place for a little girl to play journalist."

Lily opened her mouth to argue but a hand griped hers and James' voice spoke, "She's not playing anything," at her side, holding her hand, she realized how much she appreciated James for his loyalty, "but I'd love to take down your name so I can quote you in an upcoming article about complacency when it comes to the rights and protection of all lives, magical community or not."

"Potter, just because you're in a different department doesn't mean I don't have to approve everything in the Prophet." Mr. Knox scoffed, "You two have no idea, your weren't here for the last war…you're what? Sixteen? Seventeen? You have no idea the sacrifices you have to make in a war."

"Innocent lives are not a sacrifice," Lily snapped, her hand reaching to grab James' as they stood there in defiance of Knox's opinions.

"Lily's right." James said, squeezing her hand as he said it, "Also, we quit."

Lily swung her head and stared at James openmouthed. James was glaring down at Knox, sitting in his desk precariously, like Knox was the epitome of dragon dung. Lily could've kissed him, if she hadn't just resigned for them both. James seemed to realize what he said though because he backtracked.

"Er, I quit." He stated looking shy and adorable, "Lily can think and act for herself."

Lily smiled at him, the total dork, and squeezed his hand in return, "I quit too," she said nodding her head at James, "We quit."

Hand in hand, Lily and James walked out of the office, but not before James swooped down and grabbed Lily's article out of the bin. He handed it to Lily as they walked out and kissed her on her temple as she put the parchment on her heart.

"What do you say we celebrate by going back to my place?" he asked as they neared the end of the hall, giving her an allusive look.

"I don't think _that_ is going to help us find a way to explain to anyone how we quit our summer jobs."

Lily, although feeling liberated, did not fancy the conversation she'd have to have with her father and sister when she finally got home. James held open the door that led to the busy streets outside of the factory. Muggles made their way around the building, disguised from them as an abandoned warehouse. Only a little girl glanced oddly as the couple made their way arm in arm across the street.

"My parents will be back from their trip though," James replied slyly, "so our clothes will have to stay on this time."

Lily smiled at the ground as she elbowed him in the side but her wrath was thrown out the window the moment she leaned her head on his arm, "Do you really want me around when you tell your parents you quit your internship?"

James licked his lips, "I don't really care that much about my resume to be honest—I took the internship because I liked drawing and photographing the world."

James winked at her, pulling them under the eves of an old apartment complex with boarded windows. He brushed her hair back and she placed both hands on his shoulders as she stared at him.

"You _were_ an added bonus, accepting the internship just gave me another reason to spend time with the prettiest, smartest, and most talented writer in all of Hogwarts."

Lily smiled up at him, her hands gripping his shoulders, "James?" she said openly.

"Hm?" he asked, as his lips brushed against her neck.

She laughed and used her hands to guide his face back to hers so she could sincerely tell him, "I'm happy we got placed in the same internship together." James looked thrilled enough that he was going to kiss her until she couldn't stand so Lily added quickly, "I like you, James. A lot. And I don't want to just mess around with you in the stairwell of an old newspaper printing plant," she smiled cheekily at him, "To be honest, I'd quite like to mess around with you anywhere."

She had more that she was going to tell him, like how much it meant to her that he stood up for her twice today, but James effectively kept her praises at bay for another day by kissing her until her cheeks were red, her heart was full, and their troubles faded away like words on an old parchment.


End file.
